The Queen's sister
by schnabeltier
Summary: It's a story of deceit, love, hate and sorrow. It's the story of Vivienne, born with the abilities of a seer and later mother to Morgause and Morgana. Rated T for now, but the rating will most probably climb, due to violence and mature themes.
1. Author's note

**Introduction:**

It's a story of deceit, love, hate and sorrow. It's the story of Vivienne, born with the abilities of a seer and later mother to Morgause and Morgana.

**Author's note:**

So this is my take on how the events around Arthurs, Morganas and Morgauses parents could have emerged.

I should probably warn you, that this story contains an element, which could be regarded as a **spoiler** for season 4. There will be a certain character, whose appearance has already been confirmed by the BBC. But as I don't know anything more about him than this and that he won't be a nice guy, I don't suppose it's a major spoiler, but I felt like I had to include him.

Regarding characters: You will probably meet some old friends in this fic. Gaius, Alice, Nimueh, Balinor, Cenred and of course Uther plus Igraine will all be featured, though the story focuses on Vivienne. As you can see in the little summary she will depicted as the mother of Morgause and Morgana.

I know, that this story probably won't get many views, but I wanted to tell it nonetheless and I hope you'll review, if you like it and also if you have a critical opinion.

The Rating will most probably climb due to violence and mature themes.

**Disclaimer: **

I don't own Merlin.**  
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	2. A Witch's Quickening

**Chapter One – A Witch's Quickening**

As a child I have been used to running about the estates of the family de Bois – my family, to be exact. An ancestor of my father conquered the land a few hundred years ago and ever since his offsprings have ruled there, although we have never risen to greater power until the marriage of my sister.

But when I was born these events were still unthought of. Nobody in my fathers realm had ever heard of Uther Pendragon then, let alone, that he would be king. King Vortigern still lived and ruled with his three sons. They already were young men at that time and in my childhood I often heard some stories about their behavior. Vortimer, Categirn and Pascent seemed to spend their time with fighting, as well as chasing and impregnating girls, but those were nothing but rumors and I cannot tell more about them.

Little did my family have to do with the intrigues of the court and that applied the more to us children. Igraine was the oldest of us and she was, frankly spoken, the most spoiled. One would have thought, that this would have been the role of Tristan, the youngest, but he loved his eldest sister to much to challenge her rank. We all loved Igraine. She was like a fairy with her bright and beautiful smile, her light hair, light eyes and light skin. In many respects she looked like my father, but she was of course womanly and beautiful.

The second-eldest was Agravaine, the heir. Heirs are mostly much longed for by men and my father was no exception, although he loved us all very much. I was the third child and I never received much attention, except when I was compared to one of my siblings. But neither was I as pretty and good-natured as Igraine, nor as strong as Agravaine, nor as sweet and cunning as Tristan.

It did not bother me that much though. I loved them all and I loved my parents too. So my childhood was a happy one. It was spend in running around on the fields, adoring my sister and making my nurse spend the whole day to search us.

Those were happy days and I am sorry, that I was not able to give my daughters the chance to experience the like. Both of them had to grow up without their fathers and mostly without their mother. I, on the other side, had a loving father and a strict, but likewisely caring mother. The only excuse I have is that I never had the chance to bring my children up in that way.

If people knew the truth, they would believe me a great whore. Getting pregnant before being married and then, later and being a married women, sleeping with my own brother-in-law – it is, I have to admit, a scandalous enumeration, but in the end it was love, that drove me to it, and therefore I can see none of my daughters as an error.

But all of this was still part of an unknown future, when I grew up. It did not seem as if any of us children were destined for greater things, than our parents had archived. The girls would become the wives of some other lord or possibly a baron and the boys would be knights, strong an courageous knights of course. But that was it and none of us was very disappointed about it, maybe apart from my mother, who had – although I think she really felt love for my father after some years – had always felt, that she had been married below her station.

Nonetheless she seemed to be happy enough with her life back then. Life seemed overall very easy to me, until the dreams started. I was maybe five, when it first happened.

_A dark tunnel. I was running through a dark tunnel with water dripping of its walls, which I could not see, not at all. There was some sort of light, that nonetheless did not seem to have any particular source. Still it was glowing like a pale worm, which crawled through the mid of the tunnel, enlightening neither the walls, nor the ground, nor the ceiling. Then I heard water – much water, as if a giant wave was raising in my direction, and the sound got louder and louder, so that I knew, that the wave would meet me in a few minutes, but nonetheless I ran on and on and on._

_When I met the wave I saw **things** in it._

_A brown haired man and another one, who looked a bit like him, but taller and black-haired. Their piercing, similar brown eyes were unforgettable to me. Then I saw a woman with the same brown eyes and long, golden hair wearing an armour and holding a sword in her hand. Then another woman with blue eyes and dark hair like mine and she was stertorous, as if she was not able to breath anymore. In front of her, as she fell down, stood a young man with black hair, but I could only see his backside. Then Igraine, much older than her nine years holding a baby in her arms and the flash of a young man with the same blue eyes as my sisters._

I woke up with a scream, barely realizing, that everything around me was wet – and not from sweat, but from water, as if a giant wave had crashed down on us... Igraine stared at me, wet as well as the bed we shared. "W-w-what w-w-was that?", she stuttered, staring around with her eyes widely open. I answered confuseldy with a voice bare of any emotion at the beginning and then confused, panicking: "I saw you, Igraine, I saw your son. I saw my daughters. One of them – she was dying..." Then my voice broke and I sobbed at the shoulder of my older sister, who held me, until our nurse came in from the chamber next to ours, where she slept, awoken by my loud weeping.

Since then such dreams as these come too me irregularly, but from time to time. Often I realize just shortly after my awakening, what I had seen and mostly the dreams consisted of nothing more than quick flashes of light and pictures, which I could barely comprehend.

The dreams gained me a sleeping chamber for myself, so that Igraine would not be disturbed by my nightly cries and the waves, which often crashed down on me, when I dreamed. In one of the surrounding villages lived an old sorceress, who was brought to our house and quickly realized my dreams for what they were: the visions of a seer. To apprehend, that sudden waves out of nowhere were magic, nobody else than my mother was needed.

The old sorceress was able to help me a bit with this, but as she was not born with the abilities of a seer, she could not teach me, how to control this "gift" of mine. "I'm sorry, my girl", she said shaking her head, "but you need a greater power than me to teach you." She then left me to return to her village, after to my parents promising, that she would sent me a fit teacher.

I remember my father looking at me with something like proudness in his eyes for the first time, as – although I believe he loved me very much – he had never regarded me as something special before. "My aunt was a sorceress too, you know?", he said jovially, although he definitely knew I did, as his sister had never failed to tell us about the tricks their aunt had shown them, when they were little, while she regretted, that she could not show them to us herself. "I know.", I therefore answered and was rewarded with a pat on the head. "Well then.", my father said, beaming over the thought, that his daughter was a magician and a seer.

One has to have in ones mind, that magic was not forbidden at the time. It was, on the contrary, believed to be a great honor, if you had someone with magic in your family. Of course it was nonetheless not considered to send me away to soomeone, who could teach me about my special powers. I was still the daughter of a nobleman and as such it was not fit for me "to live with some druids in the wood and such", as my mother liked to put it. I wouldn't have gone anyway. My "gift" was scary enough to me – which five year old girl wouldn't be afraid, if she found, that she was flooding her chambers in her sleep? - but leaving my home and everything I knew would have been far worse.

Consequently my teacher had to come to me. And she came.

**Author's note:**

No, I ain't sorry for this little cliffhanger. ^^ I very much hope it keeps you reading once the next chapter is up and if you want to you can also pass the time by telling me your suggestions about who will be Viviennes teacher.

I fear, that the next chapters will be much retelling, but the story will definitely emerge into more action, when it comes to Uther.

As always: Sorry for every error, which might be in there. Please do not hesitate to point them out to me.


	3. Nimueh

**Chapter Two – Nimueh**

The day my new teacher came was a sunny, bright one. I lay flat on my belly, pressing it against the clapboards of the old, roman villa we lived in. Agravaine lay beside me and together we observed the road. I had begged him to come up there with me, when my father had received the message, that the great sorcerer, who would teach me, would arrive that day. At first my brother had declined to come with me, but then he had brought himself to help me climb on the roof.

About noon a rider approached on the road. "That's him!", claimed I with anxiety, joy and fear all in one. Agravaine merely snorted. "Could be everyone.", he mumbled grumpily. I did not know why he was so discontented and for the moment I didn't care. Instead I poked my tongue out at him and then quickly jumped through the secret hatchway, which we children had discovered a few years ago and since then had used to climb up the roof.

When I reached the atrium, which my ancestors had covered – against roman tradition – with a roof and where my father usually received all the guests. I stopped in front of the door, breathing heavily, as I had been running the entire way. I lay my hand on the door, before it came to my mind, that I probably looked quite tousled, considering the hard wind on the roof. So I ran to my room, brushed my hair and made myself presentable, until my nurse came in. "Come over here, young lady. There's a guest for you.", she said.

While we approached the atrium I was shuddering. My joy had vanished and I had become painfully nervous. When we walked past Igraines room, where she stood along with Tristan and looked at me with her beautiful blue eyes, I just wanted to run to them instead of meeting this scary sorcerer.

I was pushed into the atrium by my nurse far to early for my taste. My father and my mother were both standing in there: she sitting on one of the roman lounges with a dignified look on her face, he with all the cordiality he usually showed in front of our guests. But still I could see he was nervous, which was not at all normal. My father had always been a calm man – sometimes loud, yes, but never in anger, always in joy. I had not seen him nervous for... well, forever.

The third person in the room was a black-haired, pale woman in her mid-twenties with intoxicating eyes. Her sharp gaze caught me and I stared at her in shock. Then I curtsied and lowered my glance. The beautiful lady turned to my father again and sad - with a heightened brow: "That's the girl then?" My father answered, she was right. "We are very honored, that you will teach her.", he added after a short pause, that I used to take a closer look at the lady. "Yes you are.", she answered and gazed at me another time: "You should know, that it is not usual for a high-priestress of the Old Religion to tutor some girls around the country. I do only do this, because I owe you something, Lord Henry de Bois." Father nodded and the lady left the room to be guided to her chambers by a servant.

My first lesson with Nimueh began the morning two days later. Before the sun had risen my nurse got me out of bed and took me to the atrium, where Nimueh awaited me. We were both clothed in thick cloaks and wore high boots. Without a word the sorceress nodded at me and left the house. I followed her, having some troubles to do so, as she went with long steps.

We went into the forest, which was near to our estate. After half an hour I finally dared to stir the silence. "Where are we going, mylady?", I asked. "You'll see.", was the only answer I got.

A few minutes later I spoke again: "What is it, that you owe my father?" This question had bothered me since I had first met the sorceress, but again she answered most dissatisfying. "That's none of your business." So I did not ask anymore questions for the next hour, until we reached our destination.

To my great surprise it was a little circle of stones. Even the greatest of them weren't higher than a little man, but most of them barely reached my shoulder. I knew the place well – my siblings and I had played hide-and-seek there. I definitely did not know, what magic should be in here, so I was quite disappointed. Nimueh noticed my feelings and smiled bemusedly. "Sit down.", she ordered not unfriendly and when I had done so she seated herself in front of me. "Now close your eyes.", she said and again I did as she asked.

The next moment Nimueh began to hum a beautiful melody. But although it was so wonderful, that I wished, that it would never stop, it made me somehow tired. I felt how I – who had not been sleepy, when we had arrived, as we had been walking the whole morning through the cold and that had very much woken me up – slowly drifted into sleep. But then the song changed and the sorceress began to sing. She had beautiful singing voice and her words immediately woke me up, although she used an ancient, strange language.

Nonetheless I had the feeling to understand some of it. I could not have translated even one word, but I had a general sense of their meaning. With a clap of her hands Nimueh finally woke me up. Stunned I looked around, realizing that we must have spend at least two hours in the circle already, judging from the height of the sun. "You felt it.", Nimueh said, smiling. "I think I have done right, to come here."

I learned some important lessons on this day, although it took me long to really comprehend everything to the full. I still cannot grasp magic in all its particulars, but I don't know whether that is due to my lack of talent or whether it is totally normal. I certainly never had Nimueh's abilities, which is probably one of the reasons, why I still adore her. And of course the fact, that she looked unaltered for all those years, from our first lesson to her death, also plays its role. All people are drawn to beauty.

Nimueh was the idol of my childhood and she taught me everything I know about magic and although that certainly isn't everything _she _knew, it is quite a lot and enough for Uther to long for my execution. It probably drives him mad, that he will not get his bloody hands on me, but I can't say, that I feel sorry for him. I never liked the great king very much, to be honest.

From this day on magical music played in my head, whenever I had those nightmares and although it was very weak at the beginning, I learned more and more every lesson. I also learned to differentiate nightmares from visions and found a way to use, what most people call second sight. When Igraine and I sat in my chamber that night she begged me to explain how I did it, but I couldn't and I still can't.

Agravaine was enraged about that. He probably thought, that I was hiding something from them, because I wanted to be special and keep all the might to myself. I always loved my brother, but he bore so much anger in him, that it scared me in later times.

Most people are much more interested in Igraine, than in my other siblings and that probably is no wonder. After all she has become queen and died under mysterious circumstances. Things like that always attract people.

In the five years Nimueh visited our estates from time to time to teach me magic, Igraine became a little woman. She had always been a sweet girl, but she became an extraordinary beauty with her blonde hair, her pale skin and her blue eyes. When she turned fourteen the first men asked for her hand, but father insisted, that she was still to young to be married. She was his princess and she had to wait for her prince, although none of us expected, that she – the daughter of a mere Lord – would eventually marry a real prince.


End file.
